Two economists who won't stop writing

Todd Moss, of the Center for Global Development, is one busy guy. In the last few months he's written about Africa's stock exchanges, blood diamonds and the Kimberly Process, and most recently about how US political parties affect aid to Africa:

He finds that under President George W. Bush U.S. assistance to Africa has sharply increased, reaching $4.2 billion in 2005, nearly four times the level of 2000, and more than twice the level of any previous administration. He also finds that aid to Africa is higher when the same party controls both the White House and Congress and that, based on historical patterns, the change in Congress could result in a decline of about $800m in aid to Africa.

In all that spare time he's written a brand-new book, African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors, that he says is "written for students but is light on jargon and appropriate for anybody interested in Africa, the global aid industry, or the stormy debates about how to best help poor countries." Sounds good to me - plus he got a nice blurb from Easterly. And of course Todd also blogs.

In other publishing news, PSD Blog's own Tim Harford, now of FT fame, is in the midst of a US book tour to celebrate the launch of The Undercover Economist in paperback. Catch him today (Monday) at the Library of Congress in DC, 11:30 am.